The Washington Times reports:
President Bush’s immigration bill is hurting fundraising by the Republican National Committee, but fierce grass-roots opposition to the legislation is helping several state Republican parties. Tina Benkiser, chairwoman of the Republican Party in the president’s home state of Texas, says raising money has been successful “in large part to our principled stance against illegal immigration.” Since the beginning of 2006, when substantial immigration debate began, she says, “the Republican Party of Texas has experienced an exponential increase in direct-mail donations from supporters statewide.”
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This goes against the trend of declining national party contributions from rank-and-file donors who say they are angry about the attempt by Mr. Bush and some Republican senators to legalize the status of millions of illegal aliens. The pain is particularly felt at the Republican National Committee. First-quarter fundraising by the national committee this year was the most difficult in four years, according to records of the Federal Election Commission. In the first three months of this year, the committee collected $24.6 million, down from $35 million in the comparable period last year, $32.3 million in the first quarter of 2005 and $46 million in the first quarter of 2004.Citing outdated phone-bank equipment as too expensive to replace, the national committee fired all 65 of its in-house telephone solicitors. Several former employees say they had seen sharply declining contributions from past donors who refused to give now, telling solicitors that they are deeply angered by what they call the “pro-amnesty” stand of Mr. Bush and other Republicans.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee reports similar distress. The Senate committee raised $9.1 million through April — less than half the $18.3 million raised by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee during the same period.